Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Review: Another Confounding Crowd-Pleaser

Back in 1996, filmmaker Brian De Palma pulled off the, well, impossible by delivering the Tom Cruise-starring Mission: Impossible, an adaptation of the 1960s TV series. The overly complex spy story, whose complicated narrative was mocked at the time, managed to channel a campy spirit to honor the source material, while also delivering an experience with era-appropriate excitement and action, including a still-iconic sequence featuring Cruise's Ethan Hunt dangling on wires from the ceiling. Nearly three decades, five sequels, and billions of dollars later, the franchise is bigger than ever, and despite its box-office domination and pop-culture permeation, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One highlights how the series still doesn't really know what it wants to be, opting to dazzle and distract audiences with impressive action and charming characters over crafting a meaningful narrative.

Dead Reckoning borrows a page from The Terminator playbook and, instead of Skynet, delivers a deadly A.I. that has become sentient and threatens all of humanity, with this system being referred to as "The Entity." Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) goes on a covert mission in hopes of securing a key that can potentially stop or control The Entity, which sees him reuniting with Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), and even Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), who makes his first return to the series since the original movie. Dead Reckoning also introduces newcomers Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Gabriel (Esai Morales), who both seem to have their own intentions for the all-powerful key.

Recent entries into the series Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible – Fallout offered up immensely compelling antagonists with Sean Harris's Solomon Lane and Henry Cavill's August Walker, with their screen presences rivaling that of Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt. For Dead Reckoning, Ethan encounters some nefarious figures, though the ultimate villain is The Entity, a fact that the characters are happy to remind you of by saying "The Entity" roughly 700 times. Despite having started production in 2020, the reliance on A.I. as a villain feels quite timely for the industry, but much like the industry itself, the movie just nebulously positions The Entity as bad and leaves it at that. Sure, there are multiple scenes depicting what The Entity is capable of, but by making it an all-powerful algorithm, it's hard to see any of the characters getting emotionally or personally involved in the task at hand, which also makes it hard for the audience to care much about the outcome. We'd gladly take a mustache-twirling villain who is out to settle a score with Hunt than have to watch characters constantly express how terrifying The Entity is, with its omnipotent access constantly thwarting our heroes at every turn. An argument could be made that the story aims to serve as a metaphor regarding the rising popularity of A.I., but the script itself feels instead like it was crafted by an algorithm, given the countless times our characters lifelessly had to say "the key" or "The Entity." The absurdity of the script's reliance on this omnipotent entity is so strong that, given the series' penchant for masks, we wouldn't have been surprised if a character removed a mask to reveal they were a living embodiment of The Entity instead of a real human.

That's not to say that there aren't interesting human foils, as Esai Morales's Gabriel serves as a surrogate for The Entity while also being a figure from Ethan Hunt's past. He's more nuanced in his malevolence and confident in the outcome of the key and The Entity than he is interested in expressing his power over Ethan, making for a more chilling threat akin to Solomon Lane. Pom Klementieff debuts as Paris in the series, an assassin serving as Garbiel's muscle, marking for a deadly and deranged contrast to the delightful Mantis from the Guardians of the Galaxy series. Vanessa Kirby's White Widow is also back, offering up another charming and questionable turn as a broker orchestrating deals with the most powerful and sinister people on the planet. 

Mission: Impossible films have always been popular, with the debut film being one of the top earners of 1996, and while two sequels largely replicated the formula of a complex spy story with impressive action, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol broke the mold. The fourth film in the series traded in the intimate and covert tactics of the IMF (Impossible Mission Force) for bombastic sequences, while also injecting more humor than in any previous entries. When Ghost Protocol went on to become the top earner of the entire franchise with nearly $700 million worldwide, it became clear that the series had to evolve and did so by attempting to embrace that spectacle for future installments. 

There's a morbid joke in the industry that Tom Cruise has a death wish and hopes to die while making a Mission: Impossible film, which Dead Reckoning continues to make a case for. As seen in multiple trailers and featurettes, one scene features Cruise's Ethan Hunt riding a motorcycle off of a cliff to then deploy a parachute. While this scene is effective, as are a handful of other set pieces, there's not much in Dead Reckoning that is as visually spectacular or organically developed enough to match the heights of its predecessors. One sequence, which feels lifted right from The Lost World: Jurassic Park, does feel fresh for the franchise with its suspense, but while all of the film's action is entertaining enough, they never quite surprise us or feel earned, as compared to the integration of similar sequences in earlier entries. Additionally, while we commend Cruise for wanting to be as hands-on with these scenes as possible, none of them feel that much more fulfilling when catching errant glances at his actual face while he's doing them, especially with the advances in visual effects allowing artists to seamlessly blend CGI with practical effects. Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie undeniably knows how to stage action sequences, and even gets points for embracing some of the style-over-substance camera flourishes that made De Palma's debut film such a delight, but Dead Reckoning's visual excitement pales in comparison to his previous work in the franchise.

With it being nearly 60 years since the Mission: Impossible TV show aired, many viewers likely don't even know much about the source material, but the big-screen franchise feels as though it's inadvertently channeling the episodic nature of the program, which has its pros and cons. While Ving Rhames' Luther has appeared in all installments, Simon Pegg's Benji has been a fixture since Mission: Impossible III, and Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa entered with Rogue Nation, each installment feels entirely detached from everything that came before it. Like the TV show, it means that a viewer can hop into the franchise with any entry and be brought up to speed relatively easily, but it also makes the events of each chapter feel entirely weightless. While Dead Reckoning wouldn't have benefited from adding more characters, the series having delivered two films with Jeremy Renner's Brandt and then having the figure exit the series without any mention makes it difficult to invest in any on-screen relationships or characters. (McQuarrie has previously confirmed Renner's Brandt didn't appear in Fallout as production started before the script was finished and Renner's Marvel projects caused scheduling conflicts, echoing how arbitrarily characters are assembled.) Hayley Atwell's Grace does make a welcome addition to the overall ensemble, but if it weren't for the title Part One, there's nothing to make us think she would return for a follow-up adventure.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has an identity problem, which is a symptom of the franchise as a whole struggling to solidify its core values. This latest entry marks the seventh adventure with Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt, yet we still feel like we know nothing about him, and not in a way that makes him feel actively mysterious. He can both tackle any mission at hand and pull off the most challenging of tasks, though has also failed in spectacular fashion and had to improvise. He seems devoted to certain teammates, but multiple supporting figures have appeared in previous installments and even implied a recurring partnership with Ethan, only to never be spoken of again. The events of every film, every adventure, and every decision all feel hollow, offering nothing more than superficial entertainment. The evolution of the franchise feels similar to that of The Fast Saga, in that initial entries offered diminishing returns but once it found its groove, it leaned into that spirit entirely and subsequent films found exponential success. Mission: Impossible and Ethan Hunt, however, seem to keep reintroducing audiences to the concept with every new entry, sometimes bringing back characters and sometimes ignoring they ever existed, sometimes referencing events from previous movies and other times focusing entirely on the future, all while omitting any real reason to invest in anyone other than wanting to see the "good guys" win.

For a series that has struggled with finding its footing while somehow tumbled upwards, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One could possibly, finally be establishing a long-form narrative. While it's billed as a "Part One," we're given enough of a resolution to one McGuffin to feel like we were given a complete adventure, as well as knowing full well that there's a lot more to come. After nearly three decades and half a dozen outings, we might finally have real stakes and consequences that will stick with the franchise in perpetuity, possibly implying that anything that happens in this movie finally has an emotional impact on Ethan Hunt. Audiences looking for thrilling action and quippy banter between talented performers will get exactly what they pay for with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and while there's hope for the future of the franchise that there will ever be stakes, this latest outing is unlikely to win over any doubters.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One hits theaters on July 12th.